Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Can I get my second wind, please?

God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.


Midlife, Christmas is a very interesting time. The joys of seeing the children's faces that morning is no match for the joy of another moment of solitude. Why is my heart so selfish these days? God has been so good.
I took indulgences on Christmas day to try to show the children that I had some childhood tv shows too. They were not impressed by Marshall Yup and the Jacksons like they were of the Thunderbirds.
It is not exactly a dark time, just ambivalent. Ride upon the storm of my heart, I pray this day. Help me to give the reigns of my heart to God in my duties remembering 1st Corinthians 13 is always an accepted gift to my family. Rouse my soul from the fatal ease of the knowledge about God without the heart to follow step to step. Wrestle my soul into the reality of the love that You consistently show, God.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Merry Christmas Quivercley!

I love the hymns of Christmas. They are usually meditations of the thoughts of generations piled upon another and penned without as much attention to the other doctrines, except that Christ came into the world sinners to save. Am I one of those sinners that Jesus came to save? Christ allowed Christmas to either solidify us in our materialistic trappings or rouse us from our "fatal ease". Am I stuck on the trappings and cannot get away from my own covetous longings for what I cannot have? Then, repentance and faith are the remedy for my soul. God sent Christmas to shake us into that. When we prioritize the worship of God amidst all of the fun and regalia. When we give and receive, for His glory, we are as close to imitating God as we can get as humans. God is ever giving gifts of mercy and grace. God is ever receiving the praise and the glory for His awesomeness. God is never proud, as we are and never covetousness, as we are. God sends Christmas every year as a sword to cut us to the quick that we may see the state of our hearts and draw near to Him. He is good.


I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, goodwill to men.

I thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along th'unbroken song
Of peace on earth, goodwill to men.

And in despair I bowed my head:
"There is no peace on earth," I said,
"For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, goodwill to men."

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead: nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, goodwill to men."

Till, ringing, singing, on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime,
Of peace on earth goodwill to men!


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What a bunch of truths this hymn embodies. As we age and our minds grow dim of the comforts that life affords and we grow greedy of our own ways and wants, this hymn is a reminder that we are either a part of the worship of God on His day for His mercies or we are complaining about what life has or has not provided. Soul, he says to himself, give the reigns to God in this season and be grateful that though our God is a consuming fire His mercy has spared you and continues to sustain you. Do not sit in the slough of despond about missed opportunities and mess ups. Get up and Praise Him who has given this new day to grow and to learn and to imitate Him in giving joy to little ones this holiday season. Set your table and donn yourself and home and enjoy the precious gifts of hearth and home. Thank God for Christmas!

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

And the Gift Goes on...

Jesus is still giving gifts to His people. We are so grateful for the mercy and grace from day to day. We are so enamored that God's salvation has been extended to us. But it is also so precious to have the ministry of the church come along side and help us at this season of the year.
Christ's church is mighty and powerful upon the earth. Thank God for the ministries of His Church.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

All the fitness, He requires...

Jesus requires one thing. That to feel your need of Him. Our self satisfaction is a fatal ease. Our self agrandizement is a damnable status. I am good enough, we think. It is fearful to imagine that the wise men from the east came afar and saw the King of Glory come down to an infant and the Holy Religious Jews of the day missed the Heavenly Light for their watching. Grant us spiritual fitness and knowledge of You and what You require, O God.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Nor of Fitness fondly dream!

Do we change our hair and our skin and our bodies because we are dreaming of fitness? Am I black? Am I heavy? Am I fit or unfit for...heaven? Only Jesus will make us all fit for heaven. There is no optimum color or hairtexture in heaven. Just one face, the face of Christ. Bodily exercise will fit my body and heart for my labors, but there is no exercise to fit my soul for heaven, but to truly meet the Lord of Glory and allow him to pardon and see the real me cleansing my sins.
I wanted to see that Disney princess movie because I remember being in the second grade and writing a story about a black princess because I hadn't seen one. I am proud, still to be Black. I am proud of the humility that God has kneaded into the race of people forgotten, even in their own country. I am proud to be American, where we can with different skin and different cultures find a common ground to work and worship. This is as close to what John saw in Revelation than I can imagine. He saw different people groups worshipping God and being one people. How can that be, but in America. Remember, me last, if you will. I remembered you first. God knows!











Sifting through the rubble of rudiments of the thoughts come to bear in the foundations of our juris prudense and our form of democracy...
some thoughts on the founding thoughts in the light of Biblical preservatives of our culture
notes from Aug 11, 2009
It is clear that America has placed its original claims upon the everlasting consolation in Christ and the Everlasting Judgement of the Father in Christ and the consolation of Daniel by using the word President. They have identified with the dearness of Daniel. It is sad that we are so blind to that which our heritage privileges us to. Praying for the Lord to bring about His will on earth as it is in heaven was a clear part of the placing together of this form of government. We have clearly been blinded by our prosperity and peace. God has given us so much and we don’t see His hand. It’s as though it is surprise party for us and the angels have put the blindfold on and spun us around and we keep saying God is not good. He is punishing us. He is good and merciful and has given us so much. We are not happy with that. We want what “he or she” has. If it is riches we want their peace and if it is mental ability we want theirs. We can’t be content no matter how much God showers upon us, we always want more. No we are not in the promised land. If the children of Israel had been blessed with such a land, they would have thought they were in heaven.


We keep our eyes closed to what God is saying trying to lord it over one another through our culture wars. We are blind to the image of God in the reflection of the many people groups. We keep feeling that God has instructed us to take dominion over one another we have a Nebby complex the lot of us.



When the angels take the blindfold of mercy off, where will we be? Instead of trusting that God is good will we be sticking our finger in His face, saying why have You treated me this way? The darkness is not dark if God is lighting through His Word and His Providences. But, we don’t study either His Word or History in the light of His Word. The founders of the constitution had one thing right about this is that if we follow the light of the Word we will be blessed and be brought out of our grossest of sins! In spite of the devil’s wiles, maybe that is the blindfold.

If insurance is the pillars that our society sits upon and this is the grindstone we want to shore up the pillars as much as possible, to protect the pillars and cause them to glorify God. He will bless when we are diligent to seek to acknowledge Him in all our ways. God this is Yours and we are not worthy of the least of Your blessing, but we honor our parents', or forefathers, putting this system together and pray that You will use it for Your glory and help us to give You the glory in the outworking of the system.
There should be a major in the histories of insurances. We should be looking at how to sharpen the system that we not imitate the Phillistines, but God’s people, in spite of ourselves. The young people, if they don’t have a vision, they will fall into the sin of “every man for himself” mentality.
Computers can take us to that point. We could fall into a complete dark ages again. Because people are set up to that kind of thing. It would be a shame with the light that we have inherited. The proper use of the litigation and the insurance system should be taught in school and the children need to see how we pledge our troth’s to eachother so that people won’t take advantage of one another or the system and will know the consequences if we do.
Ben Franklin said, if we don’t hang together, we truly would hang the economy separately. It is important to carry the consciences of the young people on the idea of democracy and on the idea of insurance and on the idea of a free market system, or the structures of our civilization is at stake.
Dewey and many of the forefathers of the doctrinal persuasion were true to form that we were beginning to educate down to the lowest denominator, instead of to the higher denominator.

When we keep reinventing the wheel of religion, every generation a lot is lost to the children. They need to study history. They need to know what is condemned by scripture and the judgments that have come about because of ignorance. Lack of knowledge. They don’t hear me as I am like Lot?

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Beauty!





Charm is deceitful and beauty is fleeting, but...


Beauty is my least favorite quality. Some people get high on the facet of beauty. I suppose beauty is a useful tool for some things. People notice it. God is beautiful and creates beauty. My dad never fawned at the type of beauty that was in the world. I watched everything that made my daddy turn his head. It wasn't the light-headed beauty that made my father turn his head. There were certain particular qualities that attracted my father's gaze. I watched what made him take that deep breath and I really tried to imitate what made him happy. He couldn't see that what was beautiful to him was more beautiful to me, or maybe he could.
When someone tells me that I am beautiful, as my sister said this morning, I don't find it encouraging. That and $2 will get you on the subway. Don't fall asleep on the subway though or your beauty will fleet away as I find it doing. The pain of sprains affect your walk. The sags of added fat and wrinkles tarnish your visage, but the woman who fears the Lord will still have a beauty in her soul. The beauty of Jezabel, was so deceptive that I believe that it had even deceived Elijah. He was a man of like passions, possibly meaning that he was motivated to try to rescue the beautiful Jezebel from deceptions of the false prophets. When he found out that she was the supreme false prophet, it was more than he could bear. Beauty has an authority that little else has, especially in America. May God reach the beautiful to glory in the beauty of the Lord and the humility that God may use their beauty to reach lost souls for His glory. He deserves all of the glory for His creation of beauty and when we use the beauty for His glory, it also is redeemed!
Thank God that neither riches, nor beauty, nor any created thing can separate us from the love of God.
May the Beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish Thou the works of our hands, Dear Lord!

Monday, December 7, 2009

The Church's One Foundation...

Is Jesus Christ her Lord! That goes both ways. God is the builder of the people of God into one body in and through the Lord Jesus Christ and The church as a body is committed and owing life and allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ. God's purpose in love upon the earth is specific and directed. It is in and through the Church that God shows and showers His specific and directive love upon His people. Like the water that goes to the vines on the plant through the one medium of the root system. God has His directive means of nutrifying and delivering sustenance to His people in and through the Church.
I really don't think that we meditate on God's specific means of showing love enough. In life God lends us human love inside covenantal relationships. Safe and sustaining means of meeting the real human need of relationship. When we take those relationships outside of the heated oven of the covenants where God has placed them we are apt to get burned. In the Church God has given victory and liberty to love and be loved and war against the sins and difficulties that encroach. God help us to enter into the name of the Lord as a strong tower and find that victory that has been given to the Church in that one mighty foundation.